WANTED: New Apps For Web TVs

In an effort to strengthen its software capabilities for its hardware, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics launched a nationwide contest seeking developers to submit an app for its Web-connected TVs, called Smart TV.

Samsung, which makes everything from memory chips to cellphones and flat-screen TVs, already has partnered up with Hulu, Blockbuster, Netflix, Pandora as well as U.K.’s LOVEFiLM and now offers around 120 applications in 107 countries for free. But it’s seeking more content.

The winner, selected last week, received KRW50 million ($40,850) for a fairy-tale reading application that lets users read and listen to popular fairy tales from various countries from their TV sets in different languages. For example, viewers can read and listen to a popular Korean fairy tale called Heungbu and Nolbu–a tale about two brothers–in English, Japanese and even Chinese.

“I’ve never dreamed of winning such a contest…it is so awesome. I will use the money for further research and development,” says Patrick Kim, chief executive of South Korea-based SPOKE Systems, which provides technology tools for making electronic books.

“I think we will also be able to offer our fairy-tale reader application on Apple’s app store and Google’s Android market as early as next month.”

B.K. Yoon, a Samsung division president, said at the event announcing the winner that Samsung is also reviewing plans to develop a TV set powered by Google’s Android, but its priority will be to run its own operating system and application store for TVs.

Samsung says the apps contest will also take place in the U.S. in July and in Europe in September.